Multnomah-Hood River County OR Archives Biographies.....Tomkins, Val W. June 15, 1864 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/or/orfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com May 10, 2010, 11:43 am Source: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company Author: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 260 - 263 VAL W. TOMKINS, who for nearly forty years has been engaged in government work in Washington and Oregon, and for over twenty years has served as superintendent of the Cascade locks, is regarded as one of the most competent men connected with the government public works in the Pacific northwest. Mr. Tomkins was born in Cork, Ireland, on the 15th of June, 1864, a son of Valentine and Fanny Ann Louisa (Carnegie) Tomkins, the former born in Lancashire, England, and the latter in Ayrshire, Scotland. Valentine Tomkins was for many years engaged in a mercantile business in Cork, and about 1880 retired and moved to London, England, where he spent the remaining years of his life, dying in 1897, three years after the death of his wife. They were the parents of seven children: Mrs. Fannie Scott, deceased; Eileen Mary, who lives in London, England; William James, who died in Ireland; Sarah H., who lives in London; Mrs. Henrietta Elizabeth Bishop, deceased; Val W.; and Ethel G., who resides in London. Val W. Tomkins attended private schools in his native city and in 1889, when twenty-five years old, came to the United States. He went first to Portland, Oregon, and thence to Newport, that state, where he worked for the United States government, being employed for about a year in the construction of a jetty. Returning to Portland, he was put to work in the office of Robert Warrack, government engineer, and engaged in making survey maps of the Columbia river from Portland to Astoria. In February, 1891, he was sent to Cascade Locks under Lieutenant Edward Burr, chief constructing engineer, and was there employed at office work until the fall of that year, when he was returned to the Portland office. In 1892 he was placed in charge of the construction of a dyke at Hayden island, on the Columbia river, remaining there until 1893, when he was sent back to Cascade Locks. He was employed in the office of the engineering staff until June, 1898, when he was sent to Lafayette, Yamhill county, as inspector of the lock and dam built there on the Yamhill river. In the fall of that year he returned to Portland and held an assignment in the government office there until July, 1907, when he was transferred back to Cascade Locks as superintendent, in charge of maintenance and construction, and has held that position continuously since. Fred Lockley, in the Oregon Daily Journal of March 8, 1915, gave the following historical description of these famous locks: "Every pioneer who came across the plains and came to the Willamette valley by way of the Columbia river route will remember what a terror to navigation were the cascades. They will remember the toilsome and dangerous portage at the cascades. Eventually a short railroad was built on the north bank of the Columbia to transport passengers and freight from the lower river to the middle river. "The cascades consist of a series of rapids, with a fall of thirty-seven and three tenths feet in a distance of five and three-fourths miles. They extend from Upper Mailboat to Lower Mailboat Landing. The main rapid is three- fourths of a mile below Upper Mailboat Landing and the water falls twenty-one feet in a distance of two thousand feet. "The canal is ninety feet wide and three thousand feet long. One lock is five hundred and twenty-one feet long, the other five hundred and fourteen feet. The depth of water is eight feet. The lower lock has a lift of twenty- four feet, and can operate up to a twenty-foot stage above extreme low water at the lower entrance of the canal. The upper lock is formed by the upper gates of the lower lock and a pair of guard gates so the canal can be used up to a forty-two-foot stage of water at the lower entrance. "On June 23, 1874, Congress passed an act authorizing 'a survey of the cascades and dalles of the Columbia river for the purpose of ascertaining the practicability and cost of constructing canals and locks at these points.' This survey was made under the direction of Major M. Michler in the fall of 1874. Robert A. Habersham, later surveyor-general of Oregon, was chief of the party and Captain Allen Noyes, then a young man not long out of college, was a rodman in the party. Captain Noyes later became a river captain, and is now retired and lives here in Portland. "The map of the survey was sent to Brigadier-General A. A. Humphries, the chief of engineers, by Major Michler on January 16, 1875. In his report Major Michler, after speaking of the technical details of the work, says: 'The magnificent, bold and beautiful scenery at these two places can only be appreciated after a personal inspection.' He speaks of the river at places being forced through a channel of basaltic rock only one hundred and twenty- five feet wide at one point, and says, 'Among the things to be considered are the strong currents, the sudden bends, the immense rise in the river during freshets, the eddies, the whirlpools, the large masses of drift during freshets, and the masses of floating ice from up river points at the breaking up of winter. At Hell Gate, three miles above Celilo, the river becomes gorged with ice to the height of sixty or seventy feet. At the Cascades a permanent improvement can be made by the construction of a canal and locks. The work will be almost identical in character with those at the falls of the Willamette near Oregon City, and in reality will not offer the same difficulty.' His estimate as to the cost of the canal and locks and Cascade rapids and the removal of rocks was seven hundred thousand dollars. It is interesting to note here that J. G. and I. N. Day, of San Francisco, did most of the work, the cost being three million eight hundred and twenty thousand six hundred and twenty-nine dollars and forty-eight cents. "In the fall of 1876 an additional survey was made by C. M. Bolton, and the report submitted to the chief of engineers by Colonel J. M. Wilson, under date of February 5, 1877. Bids were opened on October 1, 1878, and the contract was awarded to Ball & Platt, of New York city. A. H. Ball, with a force of workmen, arrived on December 21, 1878. The work was soon under way, but it was interrupted by the death of A. H. Ball, who died on January 4, 1879, just two weeks after his arrival from New York and after taking up the work. The contract expired October 31, 1879, but was extended to July 1, 1880, at which time it was abrogated and on December 2, 1879, the plant of Ball & Pratt was purchased by the government. Ball & Platt had only started the work, as the total amount paid them was only seventy-nine thousand nine hundred and eleven dollars and sixty-seven cents. From December 3, 1879, to September 30, 1892, the work lagged, on account of insufficient appropriations. Most of the work done was by hired labor, and not by contract. "On August 13, 1881, a contract was let to David Chalmers and William E. Holmes, of Portland, for the removal of the rock in the river between the side of the canal and the lower end of Bradford island, to a depth of ten feet at low water. They removed four thousand five hundred and twenty-seven cubic yards of rock, receiving three dollars a cubic yard for the removal of exposed rock and twenty-five dollars a cubic yard for submerged rock. They completed their contract on February 28, 1882. "On September 15, 1892, proposals were invited for the completion of the work. The bids were opened by Major Thomas H. Handbury, in charge of this district, on November 15, 1892, and the contract was awarded to J. G. and I. N. Day, a firm of San Francisco contractors. The contract was signed on December 27, 1892, and on February 10, 1893, the government plant and most of the government buildings were turned over to them. Times had been prosperous and labor and materials were high when their bid was accepted. The panic of 1893 came on, labor was a drug in the market, and the cost of materials dropped, all of which was greatly in favor of the contractors. They were paid fifty cents per cubic yard for dry excavation, one dollar a cubic yard for subaqueous, one dollar and thirty-five cents per cubic yard for rock excavation dry and two dollars and fifty cents per cubic yard for subaqueous. "A large amount of stone had been gathered by the government and most of it was cut and ready to be used. This was turned over to the contractors. For laying granite dimension stone the contract price was sixty-three dollars and fifty cents a cubic yard; basalt dimension stone, thirty-six dollars a cubic yard, basalt face stone, thirty-two dollars, and basalt quarry field stone, twenty-eight dollars a cubic yard. For rubble masonry they received two dollars a cubic yard and for paving the slopes two dollars and a half a square yard, while for concrete work they received six dollars and twenty-five cents per cubic yard. "The locks were turned over to Captain W. L. Fisk, of the corps of army engineers, by the contractors on November 5, 1896. The first boat to go through the locks was the 'Sadie B.' The 'Sadie B.,' the 'Danes City,' the 'Sarah Dixon' and the 'Harvest Queen' were put through the locks together. As they went through there was a continuous ovation. The 'Sarah Dixon' had mounted a cannon on her deck and this was fired in salute. The 'Harvest Queen' had on board four hundred excursionists. It turned around after passing through the locks and started back for Portland, thus being the first boat to make the round trip through the locks. "The original cost of construction was three million eight hundred and twenty-thousand six hundred and twenty-nine dollars and forty-eight cents, but on March 4, 1913, an additional appropriation of one hundred thousand dollars was made to complete the south wall of the upper lock. This, with some small expenses for dredging and repairing the slopes, makes the total cost of the work three million nine hundred and twenty-five thousand six hundred and eighty-four dollars and thirteen cents. The cost of labor and the operating expenses of the locks last year was four thousand one hundred and sixty-eight dollars and fifty-six cents. "During the building of the locks quite a few accidents occurred. Captain P. M. Price had his leg broken by a blast at Umatilla reef on December 8, 1882. A daughter of Thomas Coyle was killed while eating her supper by a rock from a blast crashing through the roof and hitting her on the head. A crew of Chinamen were tipped over in the rapids and drowned, and some white workmen were injured. "In the '60s and early '70s several boats came over the cascades in extreme high water among them the `Okanogan,' 'Nez Perce Chief' and 'Shoshone.' June 3, 1882, the 'R. R. Thompson,' in charge of Captain John McNulty, ran the rapids. Four days later Captain Donald McKenzie took the 'Elvira' over. On July 6, 1882, Captain J. W. Troup brought the 'Mountain Queen' over successfully. On May 25, 1884, Captain Michel Martineau took the steamer 'Gold Dust' over the rapids. On May 26, 1888, the 'Hassalo,' with Captain J. W. Troup at the wheel, also made the run over the rapids. He also made the trip in charge of the 'Wasco' on June 15, 1889, and on the 'Harvest Queen' on June 18, 1890. On June 26, 1893, Captain M. Martineau brought the 'D. S. Baker' into the lower river. "The year 1905 was the record year for the use of the Cascade locks. This was the year of the Lewis and Clark fair. There were fourteen hundred and seventeen passed through the locks and they carried one hundred and thirty- three thousand and seventy passengers. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1913, one thousand and eighty-three boats went through the locks, carrying sixty-three thousand four hundred and forty-seven passengers. "On June 6, 1894, the Cascade locks saw a record flood, the water being forty-nine and seven tenths feet above low water mark. At times it rains at the Cascades; in fact it rains pretty hard. October 7, 1895, five and thirty- two hundredths inches fell in eight hours. In November, 1909, there were twenty-nine and ten hundredths inches of rainfall, which means nearly an inch a day. In 1887 the annual rainfall was one hundred and sixty-four hundredths inches, and in 1899 there was ninety-seven and ninety-five hundredths inches of rainfall, or more than eight feet of rainfall. The locks have served as a very effective rate regulator to the country reached by steamers using the locks. In 1908 the boats passing through the locks carried fifty-four thousand nine hundred fifty-four tons of freight, of an estimated value of three million, two hundred and ninety-seven thousand two hundred and forty dollars, and eighty-six thousand six hundred and fifteen passengers. During 1913, thirty-three thousand two hundred and nineteen tons of freight, of an estimated value of three million one hundred fifty-seven thousand eight hundred and sixty-one dollars, went through the locks. Val W. Tompkins, who gave me much of the information contained in this article, has been in charge of the locks since 1907 and is a perfect mine of information and statistics. A trip from Portland to the cascades on the Columbia is one of the most picturesque and enjoyable trips of its kind in America and it is one whose recollections of beauty and majesty will haunt one’s memory ever after.” Val W. Tomkins was married in 1895 to Miss Auida Brunker, who was born in Scio, Linn county, Oregon, and is a daughter of Edward W. and Emmaline (Trotter) Brunker, the former born on Nantucket island, Massachusetts, and now living in California, at the age of eighty-six years, while the mother, who was a native of Virginia, died in January, 1918. Mr. Brunker came to Oregon in 1875 and located in Scio, where he lived until 1881, when he moved to The Dalles, Oregon, where he was employed in the shops of the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company. Later he was for several years engineer in the Crown flouring mills at The Dalles. He is a member of the Masonic and Oddfellows orders, in both of which he has passed through the chairs. To him and his wife were born six children, namely: Clarence O., of Seattle, Washington; Clara, who died in infancy; Harry F., deceased; Mrs. Tomkins; Mrs. Marian P. Noar, of Los Angeles, California; and Mrs. Alice E. Warriner, of Oakland, California. Mr. and Mrs. Tomkins are the parents of four children: Eileen F., who was born in Portland, Oregon, graduated from the Hood River high school, studied three years at the University of Oregon, and is now the wife of K. S. Hall, of Portland; Alice E., who was born at Cascade Locks, graduated from the Hood River high school and from the University of Oregon, where she majored in music, and is now connected with the United States district court in Portland; Paul Brooke, born in Portland, was graduated from the Hood River high school and is now taking the course in journalism at University of Idaho; and Virginia L., born in Portland, is a senior in the high school at Cascade Locks. Mr. Tomkins is a member of Bridal Veil Lodge, No. 117, A. F. & A. M., of which he is a past master; the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and the Woodmen of the World, of which he is camp clerk. He and his wife belong to the Order of the Eastern Star. Mr. Tomkins is also president of the Hood River County Pioneer Association. His career has been marked by faithful and effective performance of duty under varied conditions and his record as superintendent of the Cascade locks is one of which he has just reason for pride. A man of thorough technical knowledge, sound judgment and quick decision, he is held in high regard by all who have been associated with him and commands the unqualified respect of his fellowmen throughout this district. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/multnomah/bios/tomkins1029gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/orfiles/ File size: 16.6 Kb